My teaching philosophy

One of my primary goals as an educator is to provide my students with holistic knowledge and concrete skillsets to be successful professionals as well as wise natural resource managers. For the interdisciplinary field of wildlife ecology, it is important for students to develop ecological knowledge, naturalists’ skillsets, as well as mastering critical and logical thinking patterns.

Professors’ teaching styles often center around their personality. As a result, story-telling and student-participation comprise the core of my classroom. I use many different  methods for different types of learners and have been trained to create a more universal, active classroom. Teaching  students to be able to synthesize different concepts into a larger product is the key to successfully training all students in our department, but is especially pertinent for students in natural resource management. Although I have taught many classes over the course of my career, I currently teach the following classes:

ENST 460: Principles of Wildlife Ecology and Management

Ecological principles and requirements of wildlife as the basis for management, and introduction to the scientific literature. Conflicts in wildlife management, government administration of wildlife resources, legislation, and history of the wildlife management profession.

ENST 487: Environmental Conflicts and Decision Making in Natural Resource Management

Study major cases which focus on environmental science with a concentration on the role and techniques of negotiation, collaborative decision making, and adaptive resource management as an environmental conflict resolution process.

ENST 602: Research Principles and Methodology in Environmental Science and Technology

Fundamental research strategies and methods of investigation in Environmental Science and Technology including field and laboratory procedures.

ENST 689: Applied Spatial Data Analysis for Environmental Science and Technology

Applied spatial analysis skills through several case studies, including such topics as combining disparate spatial data sources, identifying spatial characteristics of specific field sites, identifying landscape change over time, and spatial techniques used to identify similarities or model relationships.